Some might say that Zach Bryan is living the dream, going from unknown artist to country music superstar seemingly overnight.
However, like many people find out when they achieve fame, it’s not all what it’s cracked up to be. The attention actually caused Bryan to make a lifestyle change recently, trading in his smartphone for a good, old fashioned flip phone.
I’m guessing that Zach won’t be able to download his new album onto the flip phone, but that doesn’t seem to bother the country music artist. He’s just happy to feel a little more “offline,” which he spoke about on his recent guest spot on The Joe Rogan Experience.
I mean, can you blame him?
While speaking with Rogan and throwing back some Bud Lights, Bryan said:
“What’s freaked me out in the last year of my life has been friends of mine and people that I’ve met and things… I got a flip phone like six months ago. I called you on it. When I first started talking to you I was on my flip phone.
Because I was talking to a friend of mine and they asked ‘how are you going to track and know where your friends are at?’ with the tracking on iPhones and stuff like that.”
Joe Rogan agreed wholeheartedly, but just said that it’s a way of the world nowadays.
Zach continued:
“What do you mean? I don’t think we’re supposed to know where we’re all at. It’s scary as shit. Why do I want you to know that I’m at my house? Even my best friends in the world… our parents never did that.”
The days of riding off on a bike with your friends and being gone for hours on end are definitely over. I wouldn’t say that we are nation of helicopter parents, but the “Find My iPhone” and other tracking features are certainly ushering all of us into an era of zero privacy.
Bryan dislikes all of that, and said that even when he had a smart phone, he deleted a popular social app because of it’s location tracking aspect:
“Six or seven years ago, I deleted SnapChat because I saw the map with all the f**king heads on it. And kids are growing up like this? It’s crazy.”
I’m sure some parents like to have the ability to check in on their kids, but I can totally see Bryan’s perspective on the matter. No one needs to know where everyone is, and to ensure that no one was tracking him, he gave up his lavish smart phone for a simple flip phone.
Props to him for being able to give up his smart device. Nowadays, some people practically have theirs glued to their hand. Bryan is certainly a trendsetter with his music, so maybe people will follow along with his “anti-location-tracking” living as well.
You can view the clip from The Joe Rogan Experience below:
@zachbryanarchive Zach Bryan talks about his flip phone, Snapchat, and his age on the Joe Rogan Expirience. #ZachBryan #JoeRogan #JoeRoganPodcast #JoeRoganExpirience #JRE #JoeRoganClips ♬ original sound – Zach Bryan Archive
